Tag Archives: bottled water ban

Post navigation

Vice President of Communications for the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Tom Lauria, refutes the argument that bottled water should be banned in colleges and universities, in a response to our recent article on banning bottled water.

His response is published in a separate article, “Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water,” and in it, he presents his reaction to both sides of the debate. Overall, it’s pretty clear that he’s against a bottled water ban. While we at Filter’s Fast advocate filtering tap water over purchasing bottled water, we do believe that everyone should have a chance to express their views, so we hope you’ll take some time to read and take part in the debate as well. Perhaps you have arguments for the other side – Tap Water Vs. Bottled Water? E-mail selwa@filtersfast.com if you’d like to participate.

I just wanted to share some of the response we received to our recent article, “Should Universities Ban Bottled Water.” Pennsylvania State University’s College of Education Ph. D Candidate, Peter Buckland claims that, “The pros for bottled water are pretty vapid and easily refuted” by the following arguments (directly quoted):

People have not turned to less healthy alternatives in any study I have seen.

In the name of convenience universities can work with students to create easy-to-reuse bottles that they can carry with them. That is real convenience.

Choice is used to create a false sense of entitlement that generates waste in the name of freedom and convenience. It’s utter nonsense. Smokers said it should be their choice over other people’s health to smoke wherever they wanted to when the side effects were clear. The same argument, though more protracted works in this case.

The notion that you make bottled water always available in the name of an emergency when the emergency doesn’t exist at all times is pretty silly. Though the analogy is a little bit weak in this case, everyone isn’t allowed to carry a concealed weapon because there MIGHT be a killer in the restaurant you are in. Should we have access to any other number of ecologically and socially degrading things in the name of disasters? If anything, that’s an argument for the stockpiling and reserving of water for emergencies. When I was a kid we had a giardia outbreak where I lived and the national guard brought us water. Take care of water with tax money and not with private waste.

He makes some interesting points… What do you guys think?

Feel free to contribute to the discussion by posting a comment below or e-mail selwa@filtersfast.com to be featured in a separate post.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more responses from other universities. Not affiliated with a university? That’s okay – we still want to hear from you.

With all the recent buzz about the dangers of bottled water, we thought we’d look into the issue a bit more. Within the last few years, we’ve found that there have been several campaigns on university campuses to ban the sale of plastic water bottles. Many of these campaigns have resulted in successful bans, but the debate remains heated. Should colleges and universities ban the sale of bottled water on campus? Strong arguments exist for both sides of the debate. We have written an article entitled, “Should Universities Ban Bottled Water,” which lists the main reasons for and against a bottled water ban. This list applies, not just to university campuses, but to any place that is or has been in the middle of a campaign to ban bottled water.

Can you think of any arguments that are not included in this list? Let us know what you think, and don’t forget to cast your vote in our most recent poll on this issue.